Facebook is following Apple and Google into healthcare, according to a report from Reuters. The company is considering building online “support communities” and healthcare apps that would supposedly help people to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The way the social network is planning to position this Facebook health effort is troubling.
According to one Reuters source, “the company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name.” Presumably because the idea of Facebook knowing how much you exercise and what your blood pressure makes some people nervous. To gain users’ trust, the company may package up a healthcare app without Facebook branding, and get people to share their data—that just seems backwards.
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Considering patient privacy is one of the most important tenants of healthcare, Facebook’s history of controversial privacy policies doesn’t make it seem like a corporation people would really want to trust with their data.
Facebook’s plans to roll out health apps under apps from Facebook that aren’t branded as such shows that even Facebook knows no one wants a future Facebook Health, either.
So Why Is Facebook Doing This?
The company already has huge amounts of data on its users—names, where they live, what they read online, and what they’re interested in. Health data would only further strengthen its massive social graph.
There are a number of online support communities for people with health issues, like PatientsLikeMe and the #BCSM breast cancer community chats, and Facebook apparently wants to take advantage of peoples’ desire to share and interact with other patients for support, and build similar communities on Facebook. Reuters’ anonymous sources claim that Facebook is still in the “idea-gathering stage,” and is setting up a research and development arm for testing health applications.
See also: How To Opt Out Of Facebook’s Mind Altering Experiments
Facebook developing tools for healthcare isn’t entirely surprising. Earlier this year the social networking company acquired Moves, a fitness and health tracking application. When the acquisition was announced, people were quick to question whether their health data would be shared with Facebook—they were right. Shortly after Moves joined Facebook, the fitness tracking app changed its privacy policy to allow broader sharing with Facebook.
Whether or not a future Facebook health app will fall under the big blue branding, it will likely have data policies that allow Facebook access to your health data. And people might find that a little too personal to share with friends, let alone giant corporations.
Lead photo by Memories_by_Mike on Flickr
